BMW M3 'ute is the ultimate performance pickup

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A few years back, on April Fool's Day, BMW unveiled an M3performance 'ute. While the modified M3 Coupe was nothing more than a fully-functional joke vehicle, it got people excited about the idea of using an M3 to haul sheets of plywood home from the lumber yard. Thankfully, South Africa's Mad Dog Racing took the idea and ran with it -- turning an E92 chassis M3 into a clean custom Bavarian performance pickup.

Converting the M3 into a pickup might make Bimmer purists guffaw, but a performance-minded truck does make sense for single-car enthusiasts. Unlike vintage examples of Ford's beloved Ranchero or Chevy's similarly loved El Camino, an M3 'ute would also be nearly track ready in showroom trim.

We covered the fundamental goodness of the new(ish) 340i package a few months back when we first got a crack at the refined, reworked, recalibrated former 335i. I spent a weekend in the car then and ...

The one obvious weak link in Mad Dog Racing’s conversion is the lack of a tailgate – instead, the South African tuners simply snipped the decklid and left the trunk mechanism intact. That shouldn't cause too much of a problem, but it will make loading and unloading slightly more difficult.

We doubt BMW will ever recognize how cool a pickup variant of a 3-Series will be, and these conversions will remain at the hands of custom shops around the world -- which is sad because a special 'ute would be the perfect way to celebrate the M3's 30th birthday.